Team Europe
That was some Ryder Cup, eh? Every fan of Team USA came into this year’s Ryder Cup thinking we were going to absolutely wax the Euros. By the time Alex Noren’s final putt dropped on Sunday, we all left wondering what the hell was going on with the Americans and the choices made by Jim Furyk. The whole weekend was perplexing.
I’m not even going to get into the drama with Patrick Reed, the DJ/Koepka kerfuffle or the bonehead decisions, because our side got outplayed, plain and simple. But… did everyone forget that Webb Simpson won the goddamn Players Championship on the American version of Le Golf National? I know he is Webb Simpson and he isn’t going to wow you with any part of his game, but the dude torched TPC Sawgrass this year, he came into the Ryder Cup after finishing 4th at East Lake in the Tour Championship, and you decide to only play him in foursomes?!? After the world watched him beat Justin Rose handily in singles on Sunday, we can all agree sitting him during the sessions where he could have played his own ball was a GREAT IDEA.
Anyway…
With the exception of an early morning flight, the Ryder Cup is pretty much the only thing that will ever make me plan to get out of bed at 4:30am. That’s right, like a non-idiot, I DVR’d it, woke up at a semi-reasonable hour and watched the entirety of the Friday four-ball session without commercials, historical flashback segments, social media, or any other nonsense. It was just me, my coffee and golf. The way God intended.
And as much as I enjoyed that morning four-ball, the fun stopped when I caught up to real-time and realized the U.S. team was about to get trounced in foursomes. Although I tried to remain optimistic going into Saturday, we soon found out that there would be almost zero excitement for the remainder of the weekend. And had I known the European Team watched this video on Thursday night, prior to the matches even starting, I may have chosen to sleep in and skip the whole event altogether. (That’s a lie. An embellishment, if you will. But the video is still aces.)
The Euros probably wanted to run through a brick wall engulfed with fire after watching that. The middle of it, where José María Olazábal started crying made me feel things. Things I don’t feel unless I am watching Rocky Balboa montages.
Wonder what Team USA showed our side? Based on the team’s crazy energy levels, my guess is this…
Watch that Ben Stein clip even once and it will have you feeling like Tiger Woods looked all weekend.